Crenshaw appointed to district attorney

With one of the most important seats in the Jefferson County criminal justice system vacated, Gov. Rick Perry has appointed Cory Crenshaw to the position of Jefferson County District Attorney.

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, Crenshaw was named interim Jefferson County District Attorney, filling a seat vacated early by long-time Jefferson County DA Tom Maness.

The new DA was sworn in by Judge John Stevens of Jefferson County’s Criminal District Court in a ceremony inside Stevens’ courtroom at the Jefferson County Courthouse on Monday, Jan. 27. He will serve in that position until an election can be held in November 2014.

Crenshaw began his legal career after graduating from Baylor University with a bachelor’s degree in 2001, then a doctor of Jurisprudence from Texas Tech School of Law in 2004, according to Crenshaw’s online bio.

From there, Crenshaw went to Brazos County in 2005 where he served as an assistant district attorney and a felony prosecutor.

“I represented the state of Texas in prosecuting thousands of state felony cases, including more than 50 felony jury trials,” Crenshaw said. “Additionally, I was part of a team who investigated and successfully enjoined nearly 40 violent members of two national criminal street gangs using a civil gang injunction statute.”

Later, Crenshaw would serve closer to Beaumont, working at the U.S. Attorney’s Eastern District of Texas office investigating “drug enterprises operating in communities within the district and the major drug pipelines linking the Southwest border region to the rest of the nation, which cross the Eastern District,” Crenshaw said. “Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) cases target entrenched and profitable drug distribution organizations that are located not just in East Texas, but all over the United States as well as in Mexico and Columbia.”

While working for the U.S. Attorney’s office, Crenshaw also took a position as an adjunct professor of criminal justice at Lamar University in August 2013, where he teaches sociology, social work and criminal justice.

Clay Thorp can be reached at (409) 832-1400, ext. 222, or by e-mail at clay [at] theexaminer [dot] com.

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